Teacher held a passion for environment

Sally Thomas supported Daley Ranch, Stanley Peak

ESCONDIDO  Sally Ann Thomas loved Escondido’s open spaces, and she worked hard to preserve them.

As president of Friends of Daley Ranch, a nonprofit group that supports the city’s 3,000-acre recreational preserve, Ms. Thomas worked with city officials to spare the adjacent Stanley Peak from development and incorporate the 2,000-foot mountain into Daley Ranch.

“She was very passionate about preserving the local environment,” said Jerry Harmon, a Friends of Daley Ranch board member and former city councilman. “She really led the charge very effectively on (Stanley Peak). Sally’s efforts on that will long be remembered.”

Ms. Thomas died April 21 at her Escondido home after a long battle with cancer. She was 66.

Sally Ann Thomas was born May 23, 1945, in Palm Springs, and she had called Escondido home since she was 7. Her parents were active community volunteers, and her mother, Ruth Vera Thomas, served as city clerk and city treasurer of Escondido.

Ms. Thomas “and her friends spent a lot of time roaming the hills of Escondido,” said her daughter, Colleen MacKinnon.

As an adult, those childhood memories, coupled with a family history of service and a love of science, inspired Ms. Thomas’ conservations efforts.

She saw the city as “an ecological region and it all kind of tied in together,” her daughter said.

After graduating from Escondido High School and San Diego State University, Ms. Thomas spent two years in Idaho with Volunteers in Service to America, a precursor to AmeriCorps. She met her future husband, Bill Thorstenson, in San Francisco and the couple moved with their daughter to Escondido in 1980. The couple divorced about five years later, but remained close, MacKinnon said.

Ms. Thomas earned a teaching credential after her daughter was born and embarked a two-decades-long classroom career, MacKinnon said.

She taught sixth-grade math and science, first at Central Elementary, then at Hidden Valley Middle School until she retired in 2006.

As a teacher, “she tried really hard to think outside the box,” MacKinnon said. Her mother stayed after school and arrived early so that her students could engage in such projects as making papier mâché hot-air balloons or working in replica archaeological digs. Ms. Thomas also ran a science Olympiad team, her daughter said.

Ms. Thomas first underwent surgery for liposarcoma in 1987, when a cancerous tumor was removed from her kidney. The cancer returned in 2007, and Ms. Thomas had surgery that year and in 2009, her daughter said. She remained as active as possible through treatment, which included difficult chemotherapy.

She continued to served on the Friends of Daley Ranch board, and manned information booths at community events, researched grants and wrote newsletters.

On the deck of the family home on a hill just east of Old Escondido, MacKinnon pointed to a peak in the northwest distance dotted with homes. More than 20 years ago, that development sparked Ms. Thomas’ conservation concerns.

“When I was little, my mom took us up there to pick plants, and we took them to the Wild Animal Park to preserve,” she said. “That was the beginning.”

Ms. Thomas is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Colleen and Philip MacKinnon of Escondido; former husband, Bill Thorstenson; brother and sister-in-law, Julie and James Thomas, and their children, Christopher Thomas and Jennifer and Shane Albrent. Her first grandchild, a daughter the MacKinnons plan to name Vera Rose, is due in June.

A celebration of life will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Ms. Thomas’ home. Call (760) 480-1917 for details and directions.